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Leiweke: Beckham, Donovan will return to LA Galaxy

Tim Leiweke, chief executive of AEG, owners of the Los Angeles Galaxy, has made it clear that both David Beckham and Landon Donovan will now return.
Speaking to The Los Angeles Times the chief executive made it very clear with regards first to David Beckham.

"He will be back here on March 9 and we don't want to entertain any more conversations now," Leiweke said. "It is a distraction to [Galaxy Coach] Bruce Arena, the team and the fans, and we move on. That's the last we're going to talk about this."

Very aware that AC Milan have indicated that the deal is not dead, Leiweke said: "They'll come back. Sure they will. But we owe it to our fans [not to consider it]. They've been reading all these stories and we lose credibility by the day. That's not fair. We owe it to Bruce and we owe it to the rest of the team. We're a month away from our season."

The major part of any proposed deal for Beckham (financial) was never even close to be getting done.

"They've never been in the ballpark," Leiweke said "What they've tried to do is use David and use us," Leiweke said. "We're not going to play that game anymore. This has been extremely damaging and distracting for our team. I've been as courteous and as gracious as I possibly can, out of respect for David, but now it's time to move on. We need to get David excited about the team we're building here and about coming back."

Aware that the player himself has indicated a willingness to stay in Italy, Leiweke has no concerns regarding that issue.

"I am certain, because David is the ultimate professional, he will get his arms around this," Leiweke said. "He will be disappointed, because of how well he's playing there. But he will get his arms around it and he will come back and I think he will have a great year for us and I'm hoping we have a great year for him."

"Landon's coming back, period," Leiweke said. "And that's part of our consideration here. . . . I'm sure that Landon and his team have been watching this, thinking that there's some ray of hope that we would change our mind with Landon. I went out of my way to loan both of these players and fill their wish. I did them both a favour. Now I expect them to return the favour back to the Galaxy."